FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT BUCK WEAVER - PAGE 5

As Jeff Abbott sees it, he is running on a treadmill in the White Sox organization. If it doesn't stop soon, leaving him as the regular right-fielder, he figures it will be time to try his luck somewhere else. One night after Abbott hit his first career home run, Magglio Ordonez replaced him in the lineup. It continued a trend, as Abbott has started only twice in 14 games since being recalled from Triple-A Nashville. "I think I've done pretty well this year, but at the same time I've not moved up at all," said Abbott, who hit .327 and led the American Association with 88 runs scored.

Game 2 a sweet memory "I called the Podsednik home run. I said, `It's going long!' I just had the feeling. We've been rehashing this game all over the place." --Carmen Gianpetro, 55, of Mount Greenwood "I should have taped the game." --David Rooney, 51, of Chicago, who heard Game 2 on the radio "How many years has it been? Since 1917? Everybody's shocked that they're winning." --Jerry Ford, 65, of Beverly "The way they've been playing all season, I don't know how anybody could be shocked.

Introduced at the world premiere of his latest film, "Eight Men Out," John Sayles couldn`t resist pointing out a certain symmetry to the event. It was fitting, the director observed, that the movie, which explores how Chicago White Sox players conspired with gamblers to "throw" the 1919 World Series, was getting its first screening here in the team's hometown. Not just because it's where the story unfolded, Sayles said, but because "it's where the fix happened and where I`m sure many fixes happen."

The Yankees are close to releasing left-handed reliever Neal Heaton. The White Sox are searching for a lefty in the pen. And Sox manager Gene Lamont knows Heaton from their days ath Pittsburgh. But don't look for Heaton to be joining the White Sox if he is released. The 10-year veteran appears to be slipping. Heaton is 0-0 with an 8.25 earned-run average. Opposing hitters are batting .340 against him. He is having trouble getting anyone out, including left-handed hitters, who are batting .333 against him. The Yankees are expected to release Heaton this week when reliever Steve Howe comes off the disabled list.

By Ed Sherman, Tribune staff reporter. Alan Peters contributed to this story | May 13, 2005

Stories about the 1919 White Sox always focus on the doom at end of the season, not the boom at the beginning. However, the Sox's start in 2005 has brought back memories of 1919 for reasons beyond the World Series - fixing scandal. Like this year's version, that team also opened 24-7. It rode the quick start to win the American League. The pennant set the stage for the eight players' date with infamy in the World Series, forever ensuring those Sox would be black. The 1919 team After winning the World Series in 1917, the team's last title, the Sox slumped to 57-67 during the 1918 season, shortened because of World War I. Expectations, though, were high for 1919.

By Alan Solomon, Tribune staff. Reprinted from "Chicago Days: 150 Defining Moments in the Life of a Great City," edited by Stevenson Swanson, Contemporary Books | May 11, 1997

The 1919 White Sox--the White Sox of Eddie Collins, Eddie Cicotte, Dickie Kerr, Ray Schalk, Buck Weaver and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson--are considered by baseball historians to be one of the greatest teams ever to take the field. But there were rumors about these Sox even before Cicotte's second pitch hit Morrie Rath, who was the leadoff batter for the underdog Cincinnati Reds in the first game of the World Series, played on this date. "I don't know yet what was the matter," Sox manager Kid Gleason told the Tribune's James Crusinberry the day the Reds won the Series.

Baseball may be the national pastime, but Hollywood usually strikes out when it tries to make classic movies about the sport. Few actors have the athletic skills to pull off a lead role as a ballplayer. Even fewer screenwriters have spent enough time in a clubhouse to understand and provide a realistic representation of the game's inner workings. But Oscar week is here, so it's time to present our best and worst from the dozens of baseball flicks we've seen over the years.

Baseball's growing steroids controversy apparently has become an issue widespread and contentious enough to rouse Commissioner Bud Selig to use his utmost power. Whether that proves to be a superpower remains to be seen. The source of Selig's strength, if he seeks to mandate tougher testing and penalties for illegal steroid use, is the "best interests of baseball" provision in a longstanding Major League Constitution. Once called the Major League Agreement, the constitution was adopted more than eight decades ago. It dates to 1921 and the reign of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball's first commissioner.

Is there a better baseball town anywhere than Chicago? We like to think not. Fans throughout the years have flocked to our ballparks and carried on a (usually) friendly rivalry between the North Side's Cubs and the South Side's White Sox. The love affair between the fans and their teams certainly isn`t due to the two squads` success. The Cubs and Sox combined have won only four World Series; eight different major league teams have won more series than the two Chicago entries combined.

The debate is largely dormant, kept alive by a handful of historians who bicker among themselves. The film "Eight Men Out" is 17 years old and beyond the memory of most current White Sox players. After 86 years, there are still more questions than answers regarding the darkest period in baseball history--the "Black Sox scandal," in which eight members of the 1919 White Sox were banned for life for allegedly conspiring with gamblers to throw that year's World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.